“It’s why I’m going.”
I took another step forward, but still Iverson held me back. “And then you find a way home. For all of you.” He held my gaze for a long moment before he finally let go of my arm and moved back a step.
We exchanged nods, and I took a deep breath. Then I jumped.
As I leapt toward the shrinking hole between worlds, I heard both Manning and Iverson shout.
Then their words were gone, and there was nothing left but the freezing cold, the lack of air, the cold death that I knew from some primordial place in my bones could take me if ever I were to get stuck between worlds. Even my thoughts seemed to freeze as I tumbled motionless in the void.
Chapter 35
Lili
The passage was as icy-cold as before, but this time, it seemed to take much longer, the darkness spinning out to infinity, and then, slowly, filling with pinpricks of light that grew brighter and brighter.
Stars.
And around the stars swirled clouds of red and blue, pulsing with light and power.
Stars and stardust and magic.
The voices in my mind faded, until there was nothing but the sound of the universe—music that soared in echoing, crashing silence. I could feel it moving, both through and around me.
When I shot out into the dry air of the other world and landed with a thud on the ground, that music followed me, whipping out of the gate and across the parched land until it struck the nearest figure in the monster army that had approached across the plain.
It didn’t have far to go before it hit a flying monstrosity, sending it tumbling backward.
The rest of the figures slowed, leaning into the wind of the star-music as they pushed toward me.
Still gasping, I forced my way to standing, and then turned and rubbed the gaping wound of my arm across the remains of the portal. The light hissed and burned against my flayed skin, but the portal grew smaller with every swipe. I hoped that Scott, Will, and Iverson were using the blood I’d left on the other side to close the portal on their end, too.
There wasn’t much blood smearing across the opening. Either the cold of the passage had slowed the bleeding, or I was even closer to death than I had anticipated.
From the darkness stippling the edges of my vision, I suspected the latter.
As I reached out to smear another blood line across the portal, the blue light flared, catching my arm, pulling it inside the portal, and holding it still as the skin sizzled.
Panicked, I threw myself backward, but couldn’t free myself.
I could smell burning flesh as I pulled against the door’s hold. The pain in my arm flared up then shot down to my stomach. I fought down a scream and ignored the babbling voices erupting once again in my head.
And then Scott was catapulted out through the remaining opening, onto the hot desert sands, spitting and gasping.
My mouth opened and closed several times, like a fish, as I alternated between trying to free my arm and staring at the man who had followed me through the portal—my love, a voice that wasn’t the aswang whispered in my mind.
From behind us, the sound of hooves hitting the ground interrupted my fight against the door. I spun around as much as I could, swinging the ax to ward off any attacking monsters. Scott staggered to his feet and pulled a pistol out from inside the top of one of his cowboy boots. He started to take aim, but then lowered the gun until it was hanging by his side. A smile started to crease his face, and I twisted even more until I could follow his gaze.
It took me a moment to realize that the animals closing in on us were horses, and that there were two of them. Moreover, each horse carried a rider—a man in a cowboy hat on one, and a woman wearing a disheveled pair of jeans and a t-shirt following him.
As they drew up next to us, I finally ripped my arm out of the portal. The passageway disappeared from behind me with an audible pop, and I had only a second to realize that the arm was healed—completely and totally—before the cowboy on the horse held a hand down to me.
My stomach was healed, too.
With a glance over his shoulder at the horde of monsters fast approaching, the cowboy said, “Need a ride?”
I didn’t stop to think. Whoever he was, he had to be better than facing the approaching army with only an ax and a single gun between us.
Right?
Once again, it was my own voice asking the mental question—the aswang were silent for a moment.
I took the guy’s hand and let him pull me up onto the horse, turning back to watch as Scott scrambled up behind the woman on the other horse.
As the man in front of me urged the giant black stallion into a gallop, his companion, Scott now riding behind her, drew up beside us.
“I’m Cami,” she said, shouting over the rising sound of hoof beats. “That’s Reese.”
She flashed a grin at me, and for an instant, I could have sworn I saw fangs.
We’re all monsters here, the voices of the aswang sang out.
“Hello,” the man in front of me called out, the hot wind whipping his voice back to me. “Welcome to hell.”
Chapter 36
Scott
Cami glanced back at me and grinned. “Agent Stan Chandler. Good to see you.”
“Scott,” I yelled over the hot, sandy wind attempting to rip my words away.
“What?”
“I go by Scott, not Stan. It’s my middle name.”
She nodded, the grin on her face growing even wider before she pulled a bandana up to cover it. “I think I’ll still call you Stan.”
I grinned back, almost as happy to see her alive as I had been to see Lili when I came through that portal. “That sounds fine to me.”
The desert streamed by, the horses’ hooves pounding into the sand. Cami dug in some pocket of her strange clothing, and then handed a large square of rough, pale fabric back to me. “Tie this over your nose and mouth. It’ll help keep out the dirt. A little, anyway.”
Taking the cloth from her, I folded it in a triangle and knotted it behind my head. I glanced over at Lili and found she was doing the same thing.
I wasn’t sure where the hell we were, other than on the other side of the portal.
But Lili was alive.
So was Cami, along with her vampire informant, Reese.
We had allies. We would survive. And somehow, we would get home again.
Leaning forward, I spoke directly into Cami’s ear. “I have one question.”
“How did we know to come get you?”
“Nope.” I couldn’t help smiling even wider.
“What, then?” She tossed a glance back over her shoulder at me.
“Do you have any oatmeal?”
From beside me, Lili shouted with laughter at my question.
It was the most glorious sound I had ever heard.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Margo Bond Collins writes urban fantasy, contemporary romance, and paranormal mysteries. She lives in Texas with her daughter and several spoiled pets. Although writing fiction is her first love, she also teaches college-level English courses online. She enjoys reading romance and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, monsters, cowboys, and villains, and the strong women who love them—and sometimes fight them. For more information about Margo’s books, along with gifts and prizes and other goodies, sign up for her newsletter: http://eepurl.com/caUeyr. You can also join her street team, The Vampirarchy, on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/vampirarchy.
ALSO BY MARGO BOND COLLINS
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Bloodborne (Night Shift Book 2) Page 17